francesca zappia

5 Haunting Summer Reads to Recommend

Summer is here and the temperatures are rising. Looking to “chill” with some creepy stories to read or recommend? Here are few that may just be sitting on your shelf waiting for the next reader.

Now Entering Addamsville
By Francesca Zappia
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: October 1, 2019
Reading Level: Gr. 9-12
ISBN: 9780062935274

Zora lives in a small, insular community where everyone knows your name. Unfortunately, with her last name, that is not a good thing. Zora is a Novak. Her father, soon to be released from jail, is known for conning many in the town. Her mother is known for mysteriously disappearing in the town’s creepy woods. Twice. Meanwhile, Zora is known for being nearby when things catch on fire. She can see ghosts and secretly hunts “firestarters”. When the school janitor is murdered, and a group of ghost hunters arrive in town, Zora is forced to team up with her annoying cousin to protect her home.

This witty mystery is creepy and fresh. The rag-tag “Scooby Gang” of characters that join forces are totally lovable. Put this book in the hands of fans of Supernatural or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Haunted
By Danielle Vega
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: June 4, 2019
Reading Level: Gr. 9-up
ISBN: 978045181467

Hendricks is supposed to be escaping a traumatic past. But her “new” house, a fixer-upper with dark secrets, is just a little too haunted. Rather than enjoying her new friends, Hendricks is forced to uncover the mystery surrounding her infamous house before it is too late.

This is a deliciously creepy ghost story that will leave readers with goose-bumps. Put this book in the hands of readers who loved Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare or Asylum by Madeleine Roux.

Sawgirl Girls
By Claire Legrand
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: October 2, 2018
Reading Level: Gr. 9-12
ISBN: 978006266601

Sawkill Rock appears idyllic and pastual. However, it is also where girls disappear. Legend tells of a terrifying evil that controls the land. Now, three girls with little in common must access their unknown strength to stay alive.

Feminist and fierce, this is a book you won’t soon forget. Be prepared for twists, surprises, a little romance and a lot of violence. Read-a-likes for Sawkill Girls are Wilder Girls, The Dead and the Dark, The River Has Teeth.

The Heartwood Box
By Ann Aguirre
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: July 9, 2019
Reading Level: Gr. 7-9
ISBN: 9780765397645

Araceli Flores’s parents are going to Venezuela. She’s going to a dusty old Victorian house in a tiny town filled with MISSING posters. Here is living with a great-aunt who leaves food out each day for a husband that has been missing decades. There are creepy lights in the woods, unexplained occurrences in the big house, and then she begins receiving letters from the past.

This book is like a genre casserole. The author threw in some mystery, history, sci-fic, and romance to make a delicious read! Put this one in the hands of fans of Stranger Things.

Kingdom of the Wicked
by Kerri Maniscalco
Publisher: Jimmy Paterson
Release Date; October 27, 2020
Reading Level: Gr. 9-Up
ISBN: 9780316428460

Emilia and her sister are secret witches. The story begins with Emilia finding her sister brutally murdered. She is broken-hearted and determined to find out what happened. Doing so requires her to step out of her comfort zone to uncover her sister’s secrets and possibly use forbidden magic.

The world-building in this creepy fantasy is so good the reader may come close to forgetting they’re reading not reading realistic fiction. This story has it all: scares, mystery, and romance. Put this one in the hands of fans of Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber or The Cruel Prince by Holly Black.

-Rachel Milburn

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 8 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0062317643

On the tail end of the Great Depression and into World War II, Frankie and her younger sister, Toni, are left at an orphanage in Chicago by their father as secrets are revealed through the eyes of a ghost girl named Pearl watching and narrating a tale of heartbreak, tragedy, and hope.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 8 Edition

2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults List

Have you heard? The Best Fiction for Young Adults list has been released! Check out the top ten below!

Arnold, Elana. What Girls Are Made Of. Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab. 2017. Sixteen-year-old Nina experiences sex, betrayal, loss, and a dysfunctional home life, all while trying to understand what it means to be female in the world and whether love can ever be truly unconditional.
Bardugo, Leigh. The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic. Illus. by Sara Kipin. Macmillan/Imprint. 2017. Traditional fairy tales are refreshingly twisted, re-created, and wrapped in gorgeous illustrations in this stand-alone collection of six short stories. The world-building will be familiar to Bardugo’s fans, and readers new to her Grishaverse have the pleasure of knowing they can take further excursions into this world.
Lee, Mackenzi. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. 2017. Montague, the son of a British nobleman, embarks on a European tour with his best friend (and secret crush) Percy and his sister Felicity. Along the way, they encounter adventure and conflict that leads them to a very different destiny than the one awaiting their return to England.
Moon, Sarah. Sparrow. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. 2017. Sparrow has a secret: her closest friends are birds. When she feels anxious, she goes to the roof and flies. One day, this practice lands her in the hospital, facing questions from the adults in her life. Slowly, she recovers, finds her voice, and makes new friends along the way.
Reynolds, Jason. Long Way Down. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum. 2017. Will’s brother has been shot. In this free-verse novel, Will steps into an elevator ready to head downstairs and to follow the rules he’s been taught and avenge his brother’s death, when he encounters the ghosts of victims of a chain reaction caused by a shooting.

Continue reading 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults List

Going Viral – YA Books of Teens Managing Online Fame

There are many online platforms for sharing and creating art. Teens are taking advantage the various mediums of creating and sharing their works. But what happens when your work becomes a smash hit? How do manage instant fame? How do you take advantage of opportunity when it comes your way? Many new teen titles are exploring the effects of being or becoming an online sensation. Teens are relating to these stories both on the artist/creator end of things, and even though they may not gain instant fame, teens still have to navigate similar tricky waters in the day to day of who is a true friend, and how to manage negative comments and bullies.

The following titles are about teens experiencing internet fame:

Youtube Sensations

Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee

Natasha “Tash” Zelenka has turned her literary crush of Leo Tolstoy to good use. With the help of her best friend, Jack, they have created a web series “Unhappy Families,” a modern retelling of Anna Karenina. When a famous vlogger gives a shout out to the series, it goes viral. Now she, along with the cast and crew, are finding what it means to be a hit sensation and are managing the adoration, and the trolls, coming their way. The instant fame is also creating tensions among the crew. The story is paralleled with Tash, who identifies as a romantic asexual, navigating flirtations coming her way. Admist the fame and romance, Tash is also dealing with her older sister creating distance, her parents announcing a new sibling on the way, college applications, the impending end of the series, and the big “What’s next.”

Bang by Barry Lyga

Sebastian loves making pizza. Not your basic generic pizza, but pizza that starts with homemade dough, recipes he has thoughtfully researched, homemade sauce, and the best toppings and combinations. This isn’t enough to keeps the memories at bay though. When he was four years old, he shot and killed his baby sister, and now has plans to do the same to himself at the end of summer. When Aneesha, a Muslim girl, moves into the neighborhood she encourages him to create a YouTube channel with her about his pizza creations. Things start to shift in Sebastian’s outlook, until the YouTube channel takes off, and he is recognized, and called out for his painful childhood past. Continue reading Going Viral – YA Books of Teens Managing Online Fame

What’s Trending in YA?

I’ve had the opportunity to attend a few publisher previews recently and have noticed a few recent trends in YA publishing. Since I haven’t been able to attend all the previews it’s not a completely comprehensive list so I welcome any suggestions for those I’ve missed.

Road Trips:

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb (5/2015). Teenaged girl still grieving over her father’s death a few years before contrives with her best friend to enter and win a teen game show to win a trip to CA to follow her crush.
The Porcupine of Truth by Bill Konigsberg (5/2015). Two teens embark on a road trip to uncover the root cause of three generations of family estrangement and solve their difficult family issues.
Drive Me Crazy by Terra Elan McVoy (4/2015). Two girls who don’t really like each other, now related due to their grandparents’ wedding, try to get along as they accompany their grandparents on their California road trip honeymoon.

Mental Illness:

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (4/2015). Caden, 14, is gradually descending into schizophrenia and lives in two worlds – the real one and the one in his delusions.
One Thing Stolen by Beth Kephart (4/2015). Girl who steals things then weaves them into elaborate nests is also losing the ability to speak due to a mental disorder.
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia (5/2015). Girl with paranoid schizophrenia

Death/Dying:

The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell (5/2015). Seventeen-year-old Japanese boy dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease) wants to die on his own terms.
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider (5/2015). Two teens with terminal TB

Kidnapping:

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway (6/2015). Teenaged Emmy’s friend and neighbor Oliver disappeared when they were in 3rd grade and she’s been overprotected by her parents ever since. Oliver returns years later after he finds out he was kidnapped by his father and must try to adjust to life with Emmy and his community again.
Shackled by Tom Leveen (8/2015). Teenager suffering from severe panic attacks ever since her best friend disappeared six-years ago determines to find her after thinks she sees her again.
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller (3/2015). Seventeen-year-old Peggy recounts how when she was 8, her mentally ill survivalist father kidnapped her from London and took her to an isolated forest where they survived off the grid after he told her the world had been destroyed.

Continue reading What’s Trending in YA?

Wishing Away the Winter Blues with YA Lit

Dreaming Abour #summerreading This is my fourth year living in a city that has an actual winter season and I can say that January and February are the most difficult times of year for me. The magic of first snowfall and all of the holiday celebrations are long gone. Now everything is just grey and cold and dirty. I don’t want to think about getting cozy with a warm beverage and good book like I did back in November. I want to think about warm climates and drinks served in hollowed-out coconuts.

One of the things that gets me through this time of year is planning and daydreaming about my annual summer vacation to my hometown in South Florida. I look at the calendar to determine the best arrival and departure dates. I create spreadsheets with all of the restaurants that I want to visit and all of the supplies and cute clothes I need to buy. I ponder if this is the year that I finally plan a road trip to Orlando to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And I also begin to plan my vacation reading list.

I know that not everyone considers what they will read four months down the road, but it really is part of the process for me. There is an excitement in deciding what books will be part of my vacation. It is as important as deciding which sandals will be on my feet when I read them. Some of these are titles with well-timed release dates at the start of summer vacation, while others are upcoming releases that I plan to save.

Here is a peek at the start of my summer vacation reading list:

The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi – June 16, 2015
What’s better than reading a Florida author while on vacation in Florida? I’ve been waiting for this debut novel from Gibaldi F-O-R-E-V-E-R and I am so excited that it will be released shortly before my vacation begins so it will be waiting for me when I arrive. You’ll be able to find me on day one reading this one with my feet up.

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway – June 23, 2015
Benway is an insta-read author for me. Audrey, Wait! is one of my all-time favorite YA titles and I can often be found pushing it to readers interested in fun, contemporary stories. Emmy & Oliver seems to be a much more emotional story, though, and I cannot wait to see how it plays out.

Ripped from the Pages (A Bibliophile Mystery) by Kate Carlisle – June 2, 2015
While not YA lit, I think this series of cozy mysteries does have high teen appeal. This is the ninth release in the series and I’m excited to see what happens when Brooklyn joins her kooky family back on their commune in Wine Country, California.

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey – April 28, 2015
Thanks to Twitter, The Girl at Midnight hit my radar a long time ago. I am excited to welcome a new fantasy trilogy into my life and the buzz has been fantastic about this debut. Waiting a couple months won’t be as bad as waiting for books two and three (scheduled for release in 2016 and 2017, respectively).

Mosquitoland by Davis Arnold – March 3, 2015
It’s going to be rough to wait on this one because I LOVE road trip stories. They scream vacation, though, so I’m going to do my best and hold out. Mosquitoland sounds like it will have all of the high points and low points that a real road trip has. Throw in a quirky cast of characters along the road and I’m sold.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – April 7, 2015
The cover of this one demands my attention every time I see it – it’s so great! The story sounds like a fun and charming contemporary romance with some drama related to the not-so-openly gay protagonist’s e-mail correspondence. Many of the reader reviews I have seen relate to the readers’ inability to stop smiling and I cannot imagine anything better for a summer vacation reading list.

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout – May 26, 2015
If a contemporary romance about an American student studying in a Korean wasn’t enough for me, throw in the fact that the love interest in a KPop star and I am all over it. Musically-charged with an adorable love story and some family drama? This sounds amazing!

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia – May 19, 2015
Not going to lie: this one had me at “for fans of Wes Anderson.” The main character struggles to tell the difference between reality and fantasy which in turns requires the reader to work out the difference. It sounds both adorable and funny which are great qualities in a vacation read.

Have you started planning your summer reading? Any upcoming releases that I should consider adding to my list? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

– Jessica Lind, currently reading Batgirl Vol. 2: Knightfall Descends by Gail Simone